Custom range hoods with scallops and other decorative scroll edges – Made in the U.S.A.

Snaps to reader Laura, who tracked down a company that would make a range hood exhaust fan — with scallops! — for her retro kitchen remodel. What a terrific find. To further research this story, I talked to Donald Stanley, the owner of Vents4Less — which retails the hoods, and to Janet DiRisio, manager of Imperial Hoods — which makes them. Yup: Made the U.S.A. — and since 1961. This is Imperial’s 50th anniversary, yay on them. Here is what I found out about ordering scalloped range hood suitable for a 1950s, 1960s or, yes, even 1970s kitchen project:

Imperial Hoods can add scallops — or you could come up with your own decorative scrolled edge edge — to virtually any of their stock range hoods.

The upcharge for the scallop trim, when ordered via Vents4Less.com, is going to be update: In Nov. 2013, the company let us know this price is now$289.

Imperial has a great selection of sizes, including 30″, 36″ and 42″. They also have island hoods — I see range-tops on peninsulas fairly often in midcentury homes.

The company is very proud of their warranty: the industry’s only 7-year 100% parts and labor plus in-home service warranty. Janet says this is a testament to Imperial’s quality and the company’s determination to stand behind their product.

The decorative scroll is cut separately from the range hood and adhered with a special tape made just for this purpose.

And, they can do powder-coated colors. Vents4Less sent me a card with the custom colors – mostly primaries, no pastels, and no coppertone. But I bet if you were tenacious and nice, you could work with them to get a custom color…

Comments

We found an older Broan/NuTone hood with exhaust fan in almond to go pretty well with a newer almond Tappan electric 36-wide range top. Central Distributing in Fresno, CA, during a parking lot sale. Hired a guy to install, and he redid the inside uptake flashing for the exit to the roof. What we had was not up to code; fire waiting to happen. He took apart the wooden box inside our above-hood cabinets, redid the inside, then put part of the box on so it still looks right from the front, even though it’s a little open in the back. Now we are safer, and there’s no rusted metal steaming up on our hood to add a little something extra to our food! Next, to find a new gas cooktop that is appropriate……

Thank you for the numerous referrals over the years to Vent4Less.com. It has been a pleasure working with the homeowners.

The price for scallop edging recently increased to $289. On the plus side, our range hoods are now available in the 200 RAL colors. RAL is the color standard utilized by appliance manufacturers and others.